Road Less Traveled (35 page)

“Servitude?” Korinko stared at him. “It could help repopulate the deserts, Dan! It could bring life back to whole sections of the world where nothing has grown in centuries! It would roam free through those areas, bringing storms just by its presence! We weren't going to cage it—we were going to set it loose under controlled conditions. Exactly the same way you do with the extinct species you've reverse-engineered.”

Wilder gaped, and then slumped. “Really?” He shook his head. “I heard—I thought—there was talk about corporate sponsors, and preorders, so I assumed . . .”

“Never assume,” Fargo pointed out smugly. “You make an ass out of you and me.” Carter and Jo both rolled their eyes. Wilder glared. “What? It's an old saying!”

“And an accurate one, if cheeseball,” Carter admitted. He eyed his captive. “You didn't stop to talk to them about their plans, and so you jumped to conclusions. And created a whole big mess as a result.”

“I didn't mean to,” Wilder argued. “I just wanted to set the Thunderbirds loose so they could live their lives in peace.”

“They will.” Carter tugged on the man's handcuffed wrists. “You, on the other hand, are another story.”

“I'll take my punishment,” Wilder announced, raising his chin. “I deserve it. But you need to retrieve the remaining egg from my studio. I've got it in a containment field, and it's stable, but I don't know for how much longer.” He looked down at his feet, embarrassed. “That's why I was in such a hurry. I needed to get back and check on it.”

“And if you hadn't, you might have been able to talk your way out of all this, instead of panicking,” Jo noted. She shook her head. “Good for us, bad for you.”

“Tell me where the studio is, and we'll retrieve the egg,” Carter instructed. But Wilder shook his head.

“I need to show you,” he claimed. “I've got the site secured—you could break in, but that might disturb the egg and force it to hatch prematurely.”

“Please,” Korinko pleaded. “I need that egg back intact.”

Carter considered. “All right,” he said finally. “But don't try anything.”

He started to lead Wilder out, but Jo stopped him. “I know you're the one who actually grabbed him,” she said quietly, “but Fargo and I were the ones who caught him.”

“You're right,” Carter agreed. “It's your collar, Jo—yours and Fargo's.” He stepped back and let Jo reach in and grab Wilder's wrists instead. “You two go retrieve the egg. I'll meet you back at the office.”

Jo smiled. “Thanks, Carter.” Then she nudged Wilder with her foot. “Let's go.”

Fargo lingered, unsure what to do now that they'd caught their man. But as she passed him, Jo paused and raised an eyebrow.

“Are you coming, or what?”

With a grin, Fargo stepped in beside her, and together they guided their culprit out through the gates and toward the parking lot.

“Ouch!”

 

“How did it go?” Carter called out as Jo and Fargo led
Wilder into the sheriff's office an hour later.

“Great,” Fargo replied, falling back so Jo could take Wilder over to the jail cell. He'd been in there once or twice himself, and liked to keep a safe distance from it, just in case. “The egg was right where he said it was, and he'd maintained the containment field perfectly. We took the egg back to Dr. Korinko, and she confirmed that it'd been expertly cared for and was still viable.” He grinned. “She and Dr. Boggs should be the proud parents of a baby Thunderbird inside of the week.”

“I'll have to think of a suitable baby gift,” Carter replied, leaning back in his chair. “Maybe a pair of asbestos booties.” He laughed, and Fargo laughed with him to be polite.

Jo finished locking Wilder in and joined them by Carter's desk. “All squared away,” she reported. “I'll fill out the paperwork in a little bit, so the DoD can charge him formally.” She glanced at the prisoner over her shoulder, then lowered her voice. “It may get ugly. Breaking and entering, destroying government property, sabotage, theft, endangerment—Wilder could go away for a long time.”

Carter tilted his head to the side to study the biogeneticist, who was sitting slumped on the cell's cot. “He did take care of the second egg,” he pointed out quietly. “And led you to it without a problem once we'd caught him. That might help a little.” But he knew it wouldn't help much. The DoD was very serious about security in Eureka, and especially at GD. They tended to throw the book at anyone who violated the rules, and particularly anyone who destroyed property or research or endangered personnel. Wilder was going to be looking at a lot of prison time.

Still, Carter couldn't feel too sorry for the man. He might have meant well, but he had still put all of them at risk. And his little stunt had contributed to the problem with the other Eureka, which had put the entire world in danger. That sort of recklessness deserved a hefty sentence.

“Good work, both of you,” he told Jo and Fargo, switching mental gears. “I'm impressed.”

“Fargo's the one who deserves all the credit,” Jo insisted. “It was his idea to electrify the security gates to catch the thief.”

Fargo shuffled his feet and watched them intently to hide his blush. “Aw, it was nothing.”

“No, you did good, Fargo,” Carter told him. “Really good.” He smiled. “But I'm not surprised.”

“Neither am I,” Jo agreed, favoring Fargo with a smile of her own. “I knew you could do it.”

“Thanks.” Fargo couldn't meet their eyes, but he felt a warm flush of pleasure at the compliments. And he realized something, too. He'd been jealous of his other self for being sheriff in that version of Eureka, but more importantly, for having everyone's respect. But it turned out he had respect, too.

Sure, they teased him a lot. And he was sort of the unofficial town scapegoat, who got blamed first whenever anything went wrong. And Allison often gave him the world's most boring assignments, like overseeing inventory or double-checking vacation day requests. But he was useful. He was the one Carter and even Jo went to whenever they needed help with something technical.

Well, after Henry.

And maybe Zane.

But they still asked him for help a lot.

And so did Allison. She relied on him, and she wouldn't trust him with the small stuff if she didn't think he could handle it, and if she didn't know she could count on him.

So maybe he'd always had the respect he'd been looking for.

Sure, it wasn't the same thing as being sheriff. Or director of GD, but at least it was something.

“By the way,” Carter mentioned, fixing Fargo with a look. “Allison called while you two were on your way back here. You're going to need to fix whatever you did to the security gate before tomorrow morning. Nobody wants to start their day by getting electrocuted.”

Fargo sighed. Well, maybe respect was something you had to work toward, one tiny bit at a time.

 

“Everything seems back to normal,” Henry com
mented as Carter joined him at their usual table at Café Diem.

“Seems that way,” Carter agreed, leaning back and smiling as Vincent brought out his order, a bacon double cheeseburger and waffle fries. “For now, anyway.”

“The realities are stable, though, right?” Henry had a turkey club, and took a healthy bite after asking that.

“Yeah, that's all good.” Carter munched on a fry. “Russell says they won't shift again as long as the arrays function properly, and there's no reason they won't. She and Zane beefed up the breakers and cutouts so even if there's another energy surge, they won't be able to reset those systems.”

Henry nodded. “Good. One visit to another reality was enough for me, I think.”

That got a laugh out of Carter. “Yeah, I heard about your little visit to the jail. Not eager to repeat it?”

Henry chuckled. “Do I look like Otis Campbell to you? No, thanks—once was enough.”

“Hey, you'd make a good Otis!” Carter argued, remembering the old TV show character. “Which would make me Andy Taylor, and Jo could be Barney Fife.” He laughed again as his imagination filled out the rest of the cast. “Zoe would have to be Opie; she'd love that. And Aunt Bee—”

“Would be S.A.R.A.H.,” Henry finished for him. “That does sound about right, actually. Nice one, Jack.” He sobered a bit. “But it was an interesting experience, seeing what the town was like, how it was different, what had changed and what had stayed the same.”

Carter nodded. “Yeah, that was wild.” He leaned back in his chair and took a big sip from his chocolate milkshake. “You know, there've been plenty of times where I've thought that Jo could handle this whole place just fine without me. And more than a few times when I've come close to calling it quits.”

“And once where you were fired, at least for a little while,” his friend pointed out.

“Exactly. But seeing that other Eureka . . .” Carter shook his head. “It was actually encouraging, in a way, to see just how much of a difference I've made in this town.” He glanced around, his eyes serious. “You never know how many lives you touch, sometimes. What sort of influence you've had on the people around you. How the world wouldn't be the same place if you'd just done a few things differently.”

“‘I took the one less traveled by,'” Henry replied, clearly quoting something. “ ‘And that has made all the difference.'”

Carter smiled and scanned Café Diem again, thinking about this town and its people. His town. His people. A place, and a job, he wouldn't trade for anything.

“It definitely has,” he agreed. “It definitely has.”

 

EUREKA: SUBSTITUTION METHOD
EUREKA: BRAIN BOX BLUES
EUREKA: ROAD LESS TRAVELED